my fighter and his odd skill selection......

[hong]

My Favoured Soul has six ranks in Profession - Baker.

Ah, a fellow Ultima fan!

 

[BiggusGeekus]

Sometimes I wonder if all skills shouldn't be class skills and we'll just elminate the whole cross-class thing.

 

[Schmoe]

My characters almost always have ranks in skills that represent their life experiences, rather than just a "gamist" point of view. Heck, my villains usually have Craft, Profession, and possibly some sort of Knowledge skills representing their hobbies and interests.

 

[Evilhalfling]

My last char- starting
a human cleric of earth10/ftr 1
PS Miner 6 rnks
Kn Dungoneering (cc) 5 rnk
Intimidate 6 rnk
Concentraion 10 rnk
Spellcraft 5 rnk - "Look out he is casting grease!"
Ks Religion 5 rnk - "youcan kill a vampire by putting a wooden stake in its heart."
Search (cc) 2 rnk /+7 for stonework

Languages: common, dwarvish, terran, undercommon
He used everything successfully but intimidate and dwarvish in his 5 month career.
no enemy ever cast grease
and the vampire came back to bite us.

 

[Greylock]

Got an Elven Cleric with a Celestial Bloodline, 1st level, getting ready for his first campaign.

High stats, WIS and INT, Knowledge and Travel Domains.

Skill ranks:

Diplomacy 4(+4);
Knowledge: Arcana 1(+5), Geography 1(+5), History 1(+5), Nature 2(+6), Nobility 2(+6), Religion 2(+6), Planes 2(+6);
Speak Language 2(+2);
Survival 1(+4).

Languages: Common, Abyssal, Celestial, Draconic, Dwarven, Elven, Gnome.

No ranks in Heal or Concentration.

Kind of a one-trick pony, but I'm looking forward to how he plays.

 

[Crothian]

I can see taking cross-class skills for a primarily spell-casting class but not for minor (Ranger and Paladin) or non- (Fighter, Rogue, Barbarian) casters. Taking a level of rogue or a level of ranger to get whatever the skill is is just too good a deal. Actually, I'm very much of the view that any character who plans to be a Fighter for the rest of his career should start with a level of rogue for just this reason.

It sounds like your fighter has a high intelligence though, unlike the fighters I have played. So I guess taking these skills is a little less painful for you than for me.

That's too taking advantage of the game for me. I'd do take anoth class if it makes sense for a the character to me, not to get a few more skill points. He has a 14 Int becasue I kne wI was going to be doing this and needed a few other skill points.

 

[RFisher]

My 3e fighters tend to take cross class skills unless I've convinced the DM to let me play a fighter/aristocrat. Fighter's get double screwed with few skill points & an uninspiring set of class skills.

 

[ThoughtBubble]

Not a fighter, but my wizard has ranks in diplomacy, sense motive, Profession (cook), and a single point in storytelling.

 

[Quickbeam]

A little judicious cross-classing is essential for well-rounded adventurers, IMO. Just spending two skill points on a host of "trained only" skills gives you a lot of capability -- it only takes one rank in Open Locks, frex, to be able to Take 20 in it.

Excellent point. I hadn't played a pure fighter in quite some time until our group started an Eberron campaign and I chose to play a warforged fighter. Cross-class skills (and a bit of unique background text) add a lot of flavor to a character that would otherwise be so easy to treat as your tyoicla battletank. Plus, as you point out, this makes him a bit more diverse and allows him to adapt to different situations.

 

[swrushing]

i see it frequently.

in our last campaign, the dwarf fighter spent cross class skills to max out sense motive. he turned out to be one of the best at it by mid levels.

there is a myth that spending corss-class is useless since those who spend class will be much better. IE cross class guys spot wont beat a class guy's hide. While true that ignores the obvious, most guy's dont have hide as class skill. A guy at 10th level with cross class bluff at +6 plus say +1 for cha will beat in a bluff check most people who did not spend on sense motive at all (because they all heard its useless to spend corss-class skills) most of the time. Sure, he wont fool the cleric who knows sense motive, but most opposition are not cleric.

One of my players however did suggest a rule i like, as a means of simplifying the math and shenanignas needed ror multiclassing and skills. His suggestion is to drop the 2-1 skill cost difference. Every pt spent on a skill is a rank. He thinks the "cross class cannot exceed half your class skill" creates the needed difference between them and that making a multiclass guy spend 2-for-1 when one class buys a skill and 1-for-1 when another class buys the same skill is needlessly complicated.

I have used this in my stargate game and it has ran fine.